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Mary's Lamb / Sarah Josepha Hale
"Mary's Lamb" was a poem by American children's writer Sarah Josepha Hale, which became the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Mary's Lamb Mary had a little lamb, Its fleece was white as snow; And everywhere that Mary went The lamb was sure to go. It followed her to school one day, Which was against the rule; It made the children laugh and play To see a lamb at school. And so the teacher turned it out, But still it lingered near, And waited patiently about Till Mary did appear. Why does the lamb love Mary so? The eager children cry; Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know, The teacher did reply. Background , is believed to be the schoolhouse mentioned in the nursery rhyme.]] The nursery rhyme was originally published by Boston publishers Marsh, Capen & Lyon, as a poem by Sarah Josepha Hale on May 24, 1830, and was possibly inspired by an actual incident.Full text of Poems for our children: including Mary had a little lamb : designed for families, Sabbath schools, and infant schools : written to inculcate moral truths and virtuous sentiments There are competing theories on the origin and inspiration of this poem. One holds that John Roulstone wrote the opening 4 lines and that the final 12 lines were composed by Sarah Josepha Hale; others claim that Hale was responsible for the entire poem.Mary Had A Little Lamb. Song Facts. As a young girl, Mary Sawyer (later Mary Tyler) kept a pet lamb that she once took to school at the suggestion of her brother. A commotion naturally ensued. Mary recalled: "Visiting school that morning was a young man by the name of John Roulstone, a nephew of the Reverend Lemuel Capen, who was then settled in Sterling, Massachusetts. It was the custom then for students to prepare for college with ministers, and for this purpose Roulstone was studying with his uncle. The young man was very much pleased with the incident of the lamb; and the next day he rode across the fields on horseback to the little old schoolhouse and handed me a slip of paper which had written upon it the three original stanzas of the poem..." Mary Sawyer's house, located in Sterling, Massachusetts, was destroyed by arson on August 12, 2007. Nursery rhyme In the 1830s, Lowell Mason set the nursery rhyme to a melody adding repetition in the verses (along the lines of the nursery rhyme, "London Bridge is Falling Down"), starting with "Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb, Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow." The song is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as number 7622. Recognition 's illustrations for Mary had a little lamb, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose]] A statue representing Mary's lamb stands in the town center of Sterling, Massachusetts.Bronze of lamb. The 2-foot-tall statue and historical marker are on the town common in Sterling, Massachusetts. The Redstone School, which was built in 1798, was purchased by Henry Ford and relocated to a churchyard on the property of Longfellow's Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts. The rhyme was the first audio recorded by Thomas Edison on his newly invented phonograph in 1877. It was the first instance of recorded verse. In 1927, Edison reenacted the recording, which still survives. The earliest recording (1878) was retrieved by 3D imaging equipment in 2012. Blues musicians Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan both recorded the song: Guy composing his own bluesy version of the song for his album A Man and the Blues in 1968 and Vaughan covering Guy's version in his 1983 debut album, Texas Flood, with both also infusing the first four lines of the nursery rhyme, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", into the song. In 1972, Paul McCartney released a version of the song. Just as he had done with the 16th-century poem Golden Slumbers which was released on The Beatles' Abbey Road LP in 1969, he added his own melody to the lyrics. The single was a top 20 hit in Britain although both the choice for and the saccharine arrangement of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" did much to erode his standing with leading rock journalists. McCartney played the song during Wings' 1972 summer tour and it was included in the Spring 1973 James Paul McCartney television special. It is commercially available on the 1993 CD issue of the Wings Wild Life LP. The 1st Korean musical road, created using grooves cut into the ground, and intended to help motorists stay alert and awake, plays "Mary Had a Little Lamb." It can be found close to Anyang, Gyeonggi, South Korea. See also *List of nursery rhymes References External links ;Audio / video *"Mary Had a Little Lamb" at YouTube ;About *Mary Had a Little Lamb in A Dictionary of English Folklore Category:Songs about sheep Category:Fictional sheep Category:Children's songs Category:American nursery rhymes Category:Songs about women Category:1830 poems Category:19th-century poems Category:American poems Category:Children's poems